In Casting Forward, naturalist, educator, and writer Steve Ramirez takes the reader on a yearlong journey fly fishing all of the major rivers of the Texas Hill Country. This is a story of the resilience of nature and the best of human nature. It is the story of a living, breathing place where the footprints of dinosaurs, conquistadors, and Comanches have mingled just beneath the clear spring-fed waters. This book is an impassioned plea for the survival of this landscape and its biodiversity, and for a new ethic in how we treat fish, nature, and each other.

This book tells how to construct monofilament and nylon nets, both from scratch and using machinemade netting.

Advanced tight line nymphing tactics, including Czech, Polish, French, Spanish, and American techniques.

There is nothing more satisfying than casting and catching fish with a quality cast net that you have made yourself. No fishing book collection would be complete without this book. It is a must-have book for the hobbyist and anyone who enjoys all aspects of fishing and net making. Making and Mending Cast Nets shares over a 100 years' experience of fishing with cast nets, which has been passed down through the generations of one family. This book covers all aspects of making and mending cast nets, and it is presented in a well-illustrated, easy-to-read form, with practical tips along the way. It also gives you: Long-held, secret net patterns; Two casting/throwing techniques that have been used for 100 years.

In writing this book, author, naturalist, and educator Steve Ramirez traveled thousands of miles by plane, motor vehicle, boat, and foot. Each chapter includes his fishing with a notable person in the worlds of fishing and conservation. His fishing partners in this book include Bob White, Chris Wood, Kirk Deeter (and many other leaders within Trout Unlimited), Ted Williams of The Native Fish Coalition, Matthew Miller, and John Karges of The Nature Conservancy, and many more. In the course of this journey, Ramirez explores and fishes mountain streams, alpine lakes, National Wild and Scenic Rivers, desert canyons, brackish water estuaries, and the rolling ocean off the coast of Cape Cod. About half of this book was written while traveling through the COVID-19 pandemic and it touches on the lessons that COVID can teach us about nature and human nature. In Casting Onward, the author expands beyond the geographical scope of Casting Forward by fishing for native fish within their original habitats across American. Each story is told in part through the eyes of the people who have lived alongside and come to love, these waters and fish. Woven throughout these adventures are the stories of the people he meets and befriends while pursuing a mutual love of nature and the best of human nature, as the first criterion for finding common ground. This is a hopeful story, in an all-too-often seemingly hopeless time. It is a story of fishing and friendship. It is a story of humanity’s impact on nature, and nature’s impact on humanity.

A richly illustrated guide that offers precise terms for every part of the cast, with sections on line speed, improving accuracy and distance, loop control, and much more.